I’m sure you’ve heard the old truism: What Gets Measured Get Done.

Once we start applying this idea, we do indeed find a lot of truth in it. If you want people to show up on time, start keeping track of when they show up. Give them feedback. Poof: ontime stats go up.

But when we measure something, we often create unintended consequences. Here’s a great example you may have experienced.

Many call centers want the telephone answered promptly. So they put a new measure in place: How quickly is the phone answered? But here’s what happens: a customer service rep hears the phone ring. He interrupts the call he’s on and says “Will you hold, please?” Then he picks up the ringing phone and say (in less than one half second) “Hold please” and put that call on hold. Then he resumes his original conversation.

Now a manager who has implemented this policy looks at the statistics. Wow! Before the policy, it took an average of 30 seconds to answer the phone. Now it takes an average of 10 seconds. And all we did was to start measuring it. She’s very happy because her statistic went in the right direction. So, presumably, her bonus will go in the right direction.

If she were to look at the actual behavior, she might decide that it’s okay (based on caller feedback, one hopes), or she might say “That’s not what we wanted at all.” In either case, she needs to be aware of the unintended consequence of measuring a specific behavior.

Here’s another element you need to consider: Just because it’s not being measured doesn’t mean it’s not being done.

In small companies especially, lots of people just know what needs to be done and they do it. So we only institute measures when we need to consciously make a change. Smaller companies have a good sense of the goals and the mission and the direction that things need to go. There’s not much confusion, generally speaking.

In larger organizations, if someone were to say that they want a little more focus on customer service, there would ensue a lengthy discussion. What is customer service? How do you measure it? Point to a thing that needs improving.

In smaller organizations, it’s easier to just have a sense about how things are going. Actually measuring behaviors might not contribute anything to the discussion.

As one of my companies grows, we are considering handing some budgetary authority over to one of the managers for the first time. I’m reluctant to do this, even though it is the next logical step. Budgets are a very natural way to measure things. How much did we spend on x and y and z?

But budgets can be used to make bizarre and irrational decisions. Just look at state governments. They make labor cuts “across the board” and thereby make programs completely useless. [Editor's note: Please look through your local newspaper and insert an appropriate example here. It won't take very long to find one.]

I’m concerned, for example, that once a manager starts looking at a budget, he’ll zoom in on labor. Labor’s the biggest expense in our budget. But we don’t have any problems with labor. We don’t have excessive overtime. I don’t want to artificially hold down raises. Overall, I don’t see a need to change anything.

But once it gets measured . . . something will happen. Another truism is that the act of measuring something affects the thing that’s being measured. This is true in science and even more true in human behavior.

So here is the rule with it’s two correlates:
Rule: What gets measured get done.
 Cor 1: Once you start measurig something, you’ll see unexpected consequences.
 Cor 2: Just because something’s not being measured doesn’t mean it’s not being done.
 
As a behavioralist, I’m eager to make changes and see what happens. But I’ve learned that you need to observe more broadly than the one thing that needs to change.
 

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(No, this isn’t that kind of joke.)

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Did you hear about the accountant with insomnia?

He decided to try counting sheep,

but he made a mistake
 
and was up all night trying to find it!

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My favorite humorous poem:

 Ruth rode on my motorbike
 Directly back of me.
 I hit a bump at 65
 and rode on Ruthlessly.

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I have been just returned from my 25th class reunion at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA.

What a blast! Three lasting images came home with me.

First, my very good friend Mary S. confided in me a secret she’s kept for 29 years. As high school students back in the dark ages, Mary and John W. and I were involved in the YMCA’s “Youth and Government” program. And somewhere along the line, Mary decided that if John and I were going to college, she could too. We didn’t come from families that had gone to college before. Thank goodness John was also at the reunion.

The lasting impression is that I am honored to have had such an impact on someone’s life — even if I didn’t know it at the time. The littlest things can turn out to be the biggest things. After Gonzaga, Mary wandered off to Vanderbilt for Law. And, of course, she’s been a lawyer for the last twenty-some years. Anyway, I’m honored that Mary gives me some small piece of credit for something she did.

Second, the people of Gonzaga are the best people in the world. When we were young, we knew we’d have careers and families. We didn’t plan on circuitous career routes and all the miscellaneous twists and turns of life.

But this crowd is fanastic. Yes, there have been a few divorces and dissappointments. But there have also been travels around the world, giving up a career to care for a child with Downs’ Syndrome, taking in a teenager whose mother passed away, and many other acts of kindness and generosity.

If you had to pick a group of people to run the world, I can’t recommend a group more highly than Gonzaga graduates. As a whole, they enjoy hard work, hard play, more than a couple of drinks, talking about what matters, doing what matters, and leading their lives with commitment, dedication, and spirituality.

As a group, their stories are not just about what they did to get where they are, but how they touch peoples’ lives. At some level, God put us here on earth to take care of one another. Gonzaga graduates do that as second nature. I’m proud to be associated with these people.

Finally, my last impression is of my daughter Victoria in this crowd. She held her own! She is quite mature and had easy conversation with adults who were accountants, lawyers, financiers, and pillars of the community. She was charming, graceful, and poised. Granted, I’m her father. But it is an absolute pleasure to see my daughter being so comfortable in a situation that can’t be fun for any 15 year old.

Thank you, Mary, and Gonzaga, and Victoria, for giving me a delightful weekend.
 

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A monastery decided to start a fish and chips store.

 When the store opened, a client come in and asks one of the clerics, “Are you the fish fryer?”

“Oh no,” replies the cleric, “I’m the Chip Monk.”

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